News

Monday, 18 July 2011 02:59

With the United States closed for business, it could be that Spain will lead the way to a vast new market that has so far been largely untapped.

Spain may be the last major online gambling market in Europe for the many operators waiting in the wings to take advantage of its potential. Now that its government are pressing ahead with their own online gambling laws, there could be much more at stake for operators than just the fickle Spanish gamblers. If seen to be successful, there is the enormous Latin American sector that are waiting to see how things turn out on the Iberian Peninsula before they commit to anything concrete.

But first, they will have to crack what could be one of the toughest nuts they will ever encounter in the whole of Europe. That is not the government or any legal barrier, but the Spanish gamblers themselves.

The biggest problems that foreign operators face will be in winning the trust of the players. What makes it so difficult is that Spanish people simply do not trust foreign companies. So in order to get players to convert, the operators are going to have to brand themselves as being local, friendly and supportive. Simply going in with nicely translated websites and software will not be enough. The players in the main will not sign up. That means sending in teams of scouts to hire local customer service personnel and setting up shop in the towns and villages from where they want to attract their customer base.

Another hurdle that operators and more importantly affiliates will have to face is getting favourable local search engine ranking. At present, the local search index is dominated by a handful of local media companies, meaning that entry barriers for search engine optimisation are very high. While the operators may succeed in gaining brand awareness amongst players, those players are unlikely to find those brands in a Google search for the appropriate generic keywords. This explains the lack of Spanish affiliates.

The way around this obstacle and to have any kind of influence on the soon to open Spanish market is to team up and make friends with those local media companies that have all the control. Operators who get there first will have a distinct advantage over all the others who will soon be beating a path to that particular market in their droves.

More importantly, getting a strong foothold in the Spanish market could bode well for the promise of the future Latin American markets. Because once the South American countries see things working well in their historical homeland, they will be more inclined to trust the major companies in that market and follow Spain's lead.